SMS vouchers distributed in nationwide scheme 

To coincide with its new £ multi million advertising campaign, the Financial Times has launched a nationwide mobile marketing campaign in association with i-movo. An in-store poster campaign running in over 1250 stores across the UK is recruiting prospective readers who are invited to text a keyword to a shortcode.  By return, they receive a text voucher that entitles them to 50p off the FT every day for 4 weeks.  The vouchers can be used at any participating retailer across the UK.  In addition, each participant receives a second text voucher entitling them to a free 4-week trial to FT.com.

Martin Ashford, UK Circulation Director at the Financial Times, commented: "This is a visually arresting campaign designed to attract the attention of potential readers who may not have considered the FT before.  We wanted an equally contemporary promotion to run alongside this new campaign and i-movo gives us just that.  We proved last year that this is a very effective way to engage consumers and the real-time nature of i-movo allows us to track the success of the promotion on a minute-by-minute basis, right down to store-level".

According to David Tymm, CEO at i-movo “what is so encouraging is the consumer reaction to promotions run by i-movo.  There is a mistaken belief that mobile marketing only appeals to a younger demographic.   The dramatic redemption levels we are seeing to promotions targeted at more mature audiences – both male and female – shows that mobile marketing is now mainstream and our offering is particularly easy for consumers to understand.  Additionally, the secure nature of the system allows brands to put together really attractive offers which increases footfall to retailers as customers take advantage of these promotions”.

The Financial Times launch world’s largest secure mobile marketing campaign